Building community

“When I found the Aboriginal Business Education Program, things really changed for me.”

September 23, 2016 —

Aaron Martyniw

Now the vice-president of commercial financial services at RBC in Winnipeg, alumnus Aaron Martyniw [BComm(Hons)/06] credits the Aboriginal Business Education Program (ABEP) for giving him the support he needed to succeed as a young university student.

“For an Indigenous person, entering a school where you are very much a minority can have its own challenges,” says Martyniw.

An honour roll student in high school, academic challenges were a new hurdle for him, and he found himself struggling in his first year of university.

“What ABEP does is finds others that feel the same, brings you together and creates a sense of community,” says Martyniw.

After graduating in 2006, Martyniw began as an intern with RBC as part of the ABEP program. He currently manages a team of 14 commercial bankers responsible for a portfolio of approximately 1,000 clients.

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